Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to help ensure that integrated care boards are (a) ready and (b) supported to commission neurology services identified as suitable for delegation.

To support assurance of integrated care board (ICB) readiness for taking on greater responsibility for in-scope specialised services, a pre-delegation assessment framework was developed, which set out the criteria that ICBs should meet prior to assuming responsibility for the functions, and builds on the primary care pharmaceutical, general ophthalmic and dental commissioning functions framework. ICBs, with the support of their regional team, undertook a self-assessment against the pre-delegation assessment framework for specialised commissioning. Final decisions will be taken by the NHS England board later this year.

The NHS England Neurology Transformation Programme has developed, in partnership with stakeholders, a new whole pathway neurology model to support ICBs to deliver the right service, at the right time for all neurology patients including providing care closer to home. A toolkit is being developed to support ICBs to understand and implement this new model. It will provide them with resources and information they will need to drive transformation in their neurology services, as they take on delegated responsibility for commissioning specialised neurology services from April 2024 onwards.